This Month's Oddity in the News:
The Exhumation and Sale of Lee Harvey Oswald's Coffin
IN THE ARCHIVES:
Raining Frogs
The Real Chupacabra
75-Year-Old Mystery
History of Halloween
The First European
Resurrection of an Extinct Animal
Medieval Vampire Skull
JOHN F. KENNEDY'S ASSASSIN:
LEE HARVEY OSWALD'S COFFIN IS SOLD AT AUCTION
From MSNBC (December 16, 2010):
LOS ANGELES — The simple wooden coffin that was supposed to be Lee Harvey Oswald's final resting place will soon have a new resting place of its own after a mystery bidder bought it at auction for more than $87,000.
The coffin was put on the auction block late last month by a Texas funeral home owner who swapped it with Oswald's family for a new one when the body was briefly exhumed in 1981.
It sold Thursday evening for $87,469, which includes a 20 percent buyers' fee.
"Anything connected to the JFK assassination sells for really high," said Nate D. Sanders of Nate D. Sanders Auctions in Santa Monica.
See the entire article HERE.
OSWALD'S BROTHER DISPUTES SALE OF COFFIN:
From The Washington Post (December 20, 2010):
LOS ANGELES -- The brother of Lee Harvey Oswald said Monday a coffin that once held the body of the presidential assassin should have been destroyed years ago rather then being auctioned off and allowed to exist as a ghoulish keepsake.
Robert L. Oswald said he didn't know the coffin still existed until he read in a Texas newspaper this month that it had been put up for sale.
Oswald, 76, said he attempted to contact a funeral home owner to halt the sale, but his call was not returned. He said a similar request was ignored by the Santa Monica auction house that handled the sale.
"This is not about money on my part." Oswald said. "The coffin should have been destroyed years ago, and that is what I desire now."
See the entire article HERE.
LEE HARVEY OSWALD'S BODY WAS EXHUMED ON OCTOBER 4, 1981.
Details about the exhumation can be found HERE.
Being led by police on November 24, 1963 just moments before being shot (above)
At the moment of the shooting
Oswald's face at autopsy
The Oswald autopsy
ON A RELATED TOPIC:
Kin Seeks to Exhume the Body of John Wilkes Booth
The woman believed to be the closest living relative of presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth hopes to exhume the remains of his brother at a Cambridge cemetery to help determine if the man who shot Abraham Lincoln is buried in a family plot in Baltimore, as claimed, she and her lawyer said yesterday.
See the complete story HERE.